All About Pocket Knives

I saw this old Wallkill jack on ebay and had to give this one a try, it was just too nice to let it go for under $20.
Here is the seller's picture- Here is what it looked like on my work bench- There was a deep crack between the bare end and the rear pin. I could see the liner through the crack if I held the handle just right. The crack extended up to the shield.

The bone was obviously too fragile to open the knife with a razor blade as the stress on the pins would no doubt shatter the old bone handles. I drilled the rocker pin then attempted to knock the pin out with a snap punch. What I was afraid of happened; there was already a crack in the pile handle at the rocker pin and the stress broke out a small piece at the pin. I gathered up the pieces and cleaned them with alcohol and then later I epoxied them onto the liner.
Since the springs were free floating on the bare end they fell out when the rocker pin was removed. I had to cut the rear pins with an abrasive wheel on a Dremel so I did not further stress the fragile bone. Since the bolsters would take the stress caused by cutting the pivot pin I was able to cut it with the razor blade method. I was able to remove the mark side handle intact and washed under it with Burchwood Casey Gun Scrubber and then alcohol. That left it clean enough to use Zap-A-Gap thin and then the Zap medium CA adhesives to fill in the crack in the mark side handle. It took probably a couple dozen or more thin coats to full the gap.

The pile side handle was a bit easier, since the bone was off I was able to clean it better and scuff up the liner so the epoxy would stick. After the epoxy dried I filled in the remaining gap with Zap.

Here are the after pictures- The Wallkill brand was a brand of New York Knife Co. The Wallkill & Wallkill River Works brands were like Camco was to Camillus, it was their economy line, not quite as nice and fancy as the NYK Hammer Brand.
Goins dates the Wallkill stamps as being used circa 1920 to 1931 when NYK closed.

It carries nicely in the pocket and has more snap than I usually appreciate in a knife this size. It is like a pocket bear trap!

I think I will keep this to go with my Electric Cut Co bare head jack.
Electric Cut Co was a brand NYK acquired about 1910 and used until about 1920.

Orvet, you have a talent that most of us could only dream of being able to achieve. Great restoration of a Great knife. Very nice job and thank you for posting pictures of the process.


Joe D.

Dale, I love your tenacity in not giving up on a project, even in the face of failure like that bone shattering.

I'm afraid I would have thrown the whole mess in the corner and stewed about it for awhile. I can see why you stuck with it, though, beautiful old bone on that one, it looks like it still has years of use still left in it.

Great job!

I love seeing these old treasures come back to life. To me, a knife or gun or old tool that has survived 100 years and still has alot of use left to offer, full of charactor has more appeal than a shiny new in the box modern tool. Kind of like the new college graduate that is full of energy and inexperience and new ideas ready to take over the world from someone that has already traveled far enough down the road to see what's ahead. Wow, it's too early in the morning for me to be thinking. Nice job on the knife. ___Dave

Very impressive, Dale. Good save on a valued knife.

Thanks guys. I was a labor of love.
NYK was one of the companies who were forerunners of Schrade.

Beautiful job Dale! What is this Zap of which you speak? Sounds like something I might use from time to time.

I used the Thin (pink bottle) to get under the mark side handles, and the then the Medium (green bottle) to fill in the gaps.

The pile side handle I glued the pieces with 5 minute epoxy and then filled the gaps with the green Zap.

I use Zap when I need to fill gaps, it was made for exactly that, but I had never filled a gap even half the size as one on that knife.

I was impressed with it.

Excellent work as always Dale

Brought it back to life for years to come

Donald

Wow! incredible, another job well done Dale!

Randy